Metacognition: Jane Eyre Mashup

It's difficult to predict the dynamics of a group project. Going in the Jane Eyre mashup, I already knew that I didn't want to work alone because, when looking for Jane Eyre quotes, I would have to look through the entire book. Being in a group meant that each of the members combed thoroughly through a section of the book. That made the work of a mashup seem less overwhelming in the first place. I came into the project expecting it to run fairly smoothly and to finish it in 2 meetings (along with a little bit of individual work). 

Before the first meeting, I knew that I had to find enough passages to add to the mashup. I kept the idea of my group's theme "void" as a guidline of what to look for. I started to come up with possible subtopics for "void" while looking through Jane Eyre. I expected that these subtopics would be how the final mashup was organized; then thinking that grouping sources together and then figuring out how to order the groups would lead to the final mashup.

I was happy with the workload that I was expected of with this mashup; dividing the work of finding sources evenly through the group evened out the project and had everyone's opinion/work in the final product. I also was very grateful that I had 3 other minds to work with. I would have surely gotten stuck with trying to order the sources together.  I found this extremely helpful when I got stuck trying to sequence the mashup while discussing with the rest of my group: when I got stuck I sat back and waited to get un-stuck. However, I was surprised that I started to space out while listening to the rest of my group and found it hard to get back on the train of thought. 

I'm glad that I can collaborate with a group and still have my thoughts in the final product (no one's voice got lost), but I need to make sure that in the future I try to stay on the group train of thought even if I get stuck. Also, when working alone I need to find a way to always get un-stuck without getting distracted. 

Overall, I exhausted my brain working on this project and trying to agree on a sequence of sources with a group of four people. I've learned that I just have to keep thinking even when group meetings draw out and opinions started to run in circles.